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Ostracon depicting two women in a grooming scene

Drawings on ostraca (fragments of limestone or pottery) often depict women engaged in private, everyday activities. At the bottom of this artefact there is a mirror and a container for kohl (eye make-up pigment), and at the top, there are two women wearing pleated dresses and long wigs. The woman on the left hands a necklace, known as a wesekh-collar to her companion sitting in front of her.

Suppl. 6305
Stone / Limestone
8 cm x 10.5 cm x 1 cm
1292–1077 BCE
New Kingdom
Nineteenth – Twentieth Dynasty
Egypt, Luxor / Thebes, Deir el-Medina
Excavation Ernesto Schiaparelli, 1905
Museum / Floor 1 / Room 06 DEM / Showcase 03
  • Joanne Backhouse, 'Scenes de Gynécées' : Figured Ostraca from New Kingdom Egypt: Iconography and intent (Archaeopress Egyptology 26), Oxford 2020, p. 36.
    Tipo=Monografia SottoTipo=monografia Autore=Joanne Backhouse Titolo='Scenes de Gynécées' : Figured Ostraca from New Kingdom Egypt: Iconography and intent Sottotiolo= In= Collana=Archaeopress Egyptology Opera=26 Luogo=Oxford Anno=2020 Menzionato=p. 36 Illustrazione=
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